University of Connecticut Men's Basketball
Coach Jim Calhoun

Monday, February 03, 2003

"I think somebody must have leaked some news to the players because they practiced like hell today, they thought I was going away or something."

"Once again as I've asked you, my medical conditions, medical records, etc., I'd appreciate if you'd keep it in privacy once I speak about this, I'll speak about it and that's it. Like a lot of guys my age go up and mine had gone up, it's really not at a too dangerous level, thank G-d the great urologists at the UConn Medical Center were comfortable with everything when I went in for a scope last Wednesday. And he said everything looks fine but we'll take a sample and I was told everything looks great but we'll call you next week. At 1 o'clock last Friday he called me and said "Jim, you're spores have come back tested positive for cancer." I cancelled my workout, I didn't feel like working out, I guess I should have but the most important thing, I wanted to find out as quick as possible everything I could do so I knew Friday afternoon. I talked to some people and they were wonderful. I went in this morning and there wasn't a decision to make, something has to be done, the results have come back, I have prostate cancer at a certain stage and they know it's slow growing but it's in my system and it's not doing any good, it can do negative and will eventually do a lot of negative, so the Dr. said to do it when I'll be ready. I wanted to schedule it as early as possible, I want it out of my system and I want to fight this like I'm fighting for my life and I'll win this battle with my family and their love. I want to be back on the sidelines soon. One thing you guys could do for the public, and I'd really appreciate this, it's the simplest thing in the world to have your PSA and to have yourself tested. I've had honestly no warning signs whatsoever; I've never had any pain, nothing that would lead me to believe that this would ever happen. As best I know, in two generations, nobody in my family has ever had cancer, so I would implore anybody else to take 20 minutes out of your day to get a PSA, it's incredibly important. If anything good comes out of this it's just a really good warning that anyone could be attacked with it at any time, it's a horrible disease. I'd tell anyone who hears about this or reads this to do your family and your loved ones a favor, and get screened, it's a very simple process. Through the diligence of the Dr.'s at UConn Medical Center, they found this and they made me feel that I could be back in a relatively short amount of time, three to four weeks, maybe.

On The Coaching Situation

I will talk about the current coaching situation, I didn't have any hard decisions, Tom Moore has been an incredibly loyal assistant for the past nine years, and with the given situation, there's no way we can allow Tom to come off the road, he could be a head coach one day, but we can't afford to stop recruiting at this time. I am fortunate enough to have George Blaney with us, and George will direct the basketball team in my absence, I'm sure with a lot more input than we've heard from Tom before, while we're getting ready for Virginia Tech. I've told the kids already. I've said a lot of things to a lot of teams, and it wasn't an easy thing to say to them."

"I've told the Doctors, 'let's go after this thing, let's attack it and I'll be back.' As far as the Virginia Tech game, considering I want to get this thing done as soon as possible, I don't want to risk getting caught in snow, so I won't be traveling with the team. The last couple of times we've played them, they've played terrific against us. They've been beaten pretty good, they're a very dangerous basketball team and coming off a performance like we had on Saturday, I guess every team would appear to be dangerous. I will say something about our kids, they were terrific today, they practiced for two straight hours, they paid attention to details, they picked each other up, but once again, I'm going to attack this thing and I really don't have a whole lot more to say."

On The Team

"Practice is no different than usual, George walked up Friday night, he said to me 'you were really good today in practice.' George was the first person after I received the phone call, besides my wife, that I spoke to and he said 'at practice, you were on top of it' and I felt today in practice that I was on top of it, the only thing I did was give the practice to George and Tom, just to get used to it. We do that preseason, we usually don't do that this time of year, and I did ask the kids to really understand that you don't know what's going to happen from one day to the next and all you can do is give your best every single day, that's all I'm asking you to do, just do your absolute best because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. That's what I'd say to anybody, whether they be a basketball player or anyone else."

On The Diagnosis